Myanmar destroys 12,774 hectares of poppy plantation in 2013-14

The Myanmar authorities has destroyed 12,774 hectares of poppy plantations in the 2013-14 poppy cultivation season, accounting for 20 percent of the total of 507,800 hectares cultivated across the country, local media reported Sunday. Shan State remains the center of Myanmar's opium producing area, accounting for 90 percent of opium poppy cultivation, said the Voice. The government has also been implementing alternative development projects in the areas where poppy was destroyed in collaboration with ASEAN Police Force, the International Police Cooperation (INTERPOL), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA), the National Narcotics Control Commission of China, Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB)of Thailand and the United Nations Office for Drug and Crime (UNODC). Despite the cooperation with international organizations in eradicating poppy cultivation, the poppy plantation kept growing, the report quoted UNODC as saying. Meanwhile, the government has added five years to its original 15-year drug elimination plan (1999-2014), extending the plan period up to 2019. Myanmar is known as Southeast Asia's largest opium poppy- growing country and the world's second largest after Afghanistan.